Page 1 of Saved By My Alien Husband
PROLOGUE
DELPHINE
Ten Years Ago
“ P rincess, we are too young to get married,” Haven said, his round, moss-green face pinched at the thought.
“I'm not too young. I'm thirteen. And it’s just a kiss,” I replied, attempting to act nonchalant as my heart beat so hard it felt like it was trying to escape my chest.
“Exactly,” my alien friend replied. He held my gaze with an expression that implied this was a serious matter, but his green skin looked a little brown, as if he too had red blood flushing his cheeks, but it reacted differently to his skin tone.
I crossed my arms, sitting down on the floor of his spaceship with a plop, my brown hair covering my face in embarrassment. My lips turned down, and I blinked back tears.
“Shouldn’t my imaginary friend listen to me?” I said to myself, throat tight. I had been looking forward to going to sleep all day so that I could ask him, curious what his textured face would feel like versus kissing my soft human hand.
“It hurts my feelings when you call me that,” Haven said, sitting beside me. He played with the hem of his pants, not looking in my direction. He claimed he was part of the Eldrin, a species of alien traveling the stars, but I didn’t believe him.
“I forgot. I’ll try not to. Sorry, Haven,” I said with a sigh.
My imaginary friend was just as sensitive as me, which made sense. I won’t hurt his feelings by saying it anymore, even though it’s true. That’d be like hurting myself. He’s been my friend for a few months now. Whenever I sleep or nap, I find myself with Haven. Usually, he is in his room on the spaceship, or he is in some sort of meeting in a big room, but there is also a garden on the ship. I much prefer it in the gardens than having to go to meetings with him. Why does a thirteen-year-old-alien-imaginary-friend need to go to meetings? It's not like that was something I wanted to do. I guess that was part of the prince fantasy. I read about princes and princesses in history class, how a country named England had something called a monarchy. Then Haven came into my life, a green alien prince.
Finding him during a meeting was few and far between, since I didn’t nap as much. Mostly, I’d find him in his room at night, and we’d talk or play games. Or we’d just sleep next to each other until morning, when I’d wake up in my own bed again. Alone.
But why would I reject myself and hurt my own feelings? I sniffed, brushing a tear away.
“Why are you crying?” Haven asked.
“Alex had her first kiss and won’t stop talking about it,” I said with a huff. “I wanted to see what she was talking about.” It was very annoying of my roommate to talk about kissing so much, as if getting someone to smoosh their face on yours was a big deal. It wasn’t. Well, maybe it was, but I wouldn’t tell her that.
“We’re kids, we shouldn’t be kissing,” Haven said, always the voice of reason.
“Stop calling me a kid,” I protested. Alexandra was a year older and very snooty. She kept talking about what she would do with her life when she was a savior.
As if she could pick being a savior.
Alexandra said I was more server type than savior, so we shouldn't be friends. “Deli, why should I be friends with you when we won't be in the same circles?”
“Don’t worry, Delphine,” he said, calling me by name. He rarely did that. His feline-like, black-pooled eyes stared at me. “I’m on the way to you. You won’t have any reason to cry once we are together.”
He often claimed that he was on his way. I wished it were true.
The course of my life was already set, and escaping with an alien imaginary friend was how my brain wanted to fix that. But really, I'd go to school, they'd test me, then decide whether I was a savior or a server. After that, sometime in the next twenty years, I'd die.
They don't like to talk about it, but the adults sometimes don't notice when we are around and talk too freely. Earth doesn't have much time left.
Sighing, I leaned my head on Haven’s shoulder. He wrapped his arm around me, tucking me into him.
Maybe when I died, I could stay with him forever.